Saved by a mechanical heart

23rd January 2008

Surgeons working at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital used a mechanical heart to keep a child alive until a donor was found.

The three year old suffers from a rare condition and was born with only one heart chamber. Consultant paediatric cardiologist Dr Richard Kirk said: "It is the first time a child suffering Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome has survived being put on the Berlin heart, so we are very very pleased for her and for her parents."